Enabling the A20 line

Enabling the A20 Line

Okay, this isn't exactly a tutorial. What it is a very well commented example of enabling A20 in assembly.

;;
;; enableA20.s (adapted from Visopsys OS-loader)
;;
;; Copyright (c) 2000, J. Andrew McLaughlin
;; You're free to use this code in any manner you like, as long as this
;; notice is included (and you give credit where it is due), and as long
;; as you understand and accept that it comes with NO WARRANTY OF ANY KIND.
;; Contact me at jamesamc@yahoo.com about any bugs or problems.
;;
enableA20:
;; This subroutine will enable the A20 address line in the keyboard
;; controller. Takes no arguments. Returns 0 in EAX on success,
;; -1 on failure. Written for use in 16-bit code, see lines marked
;; with 32-BIT for use in 32-bit code.
pusha
;; Make sure interrupts are disabled
cli
;; Keep a counter so that we can make up to 5 attempts to turn
;; on A20 if necessary
mov CX, 5
.startAttempt1:
;; Wait for the controller to be ready for a command
.commandWait1:
xor AX, AX
in AL, 64h
bt AX, 1
jc .commandWait1
;; Tell the controller we want to read the current status.
;; Send the command D0h: read output port.
mov AL, 0D0h
out 64h, AL
;; Wait for the controller to be ready with a byte of data
.dataWait1:
xor AX, AX
in AL, 64h
bt AX, 0
jnc .dataWait1
;; Read the current port status from port 60h
xor AX, AX
in AL, 60h
;; Save the current value of (E)AX
push AX ; 16-BIT
;; push EAX ; 32-BIT
;; Wait for the controller to be ready for a command
.commandWait2:
in AL, 64h
bt AX, 1
jc .commandWait2
;; Tell the controller we want to write the status byte again
mov AL, 0D1h
out 64h, AL
;; Wait for the controller to be ready for the data
.commandWait3:
xor AX, AX
in AL, 64h
bt AX, 1
jc .commandWait3
;; Write the new value to port 60h. Remember we saved the old
;; value on the stack
pop AX ; 16-BIT
;; pop EAX ; 32-BIT
;; Turn on the A20 enable bit
or AL, 00000010b
out 60h, AL
;; Finally, we will attempt to read back the A20 status
;; to ensure it was enabled.
;; Wait for the controller to be ready for a command
.commandWait4:
xor AX, AX
in AL, 64h
bt AX, 1
jc .commandWait4
;; Send the command D0h: read output port.
mov AL, 0D0h
out 64h, AL
;; Wait for the controller to be ready with a byte of data
.dataWait2:
xor AX, AX
in AL, 64h
bt AX, 0
jnc .dataWait2
;; Read the current port status from port 60h
xor AX, AX
in AL, 60h
;; Is A20 enabled?
bt AX, 1
;; Check the result. If carry is on, A20 is on.
jc .success
;; Should we retry the operation? If the counter value in ECX
;; has not reached zero, we will retry
loop .startAttempt1
;; Well, our initial attempt to set A20 has failed. Now we will
;; try a backup method (which is supposedly not supported on many
;; chipsets, but which seems to be the only method that works on
;; other chipsets).
;; Keep a counter so that we can make up to 5 attempts to turn
;; on A20 if necessary
mov CX, 5
.startAttempt2:
;; Wait for the keyboard to be ready for another command
.commandWait6:
xor AX, AX
in AL, 64h
bt AX, 1
jc .commandWait6
;; Tell the controller we want to turn on A20
mov AL, 0DFh
out 64h, AL
;; Again, we will attempt to read back the A20 status
;; to ensure it was enabled.
;; Wait for the controller to be ready for a command
.commandWait7:
xor AX, AX
in AL, 64h
bt AX, 1
jc .commandWait7
;; Send the command D0h: read output port.
mov AL, 0D0h
out 64h, AL
;; Wait for the controller to be ready with a byte of data
.dataWait3:
xor AX, AX
in AL, 64h
bt AX, 0
jnc .dataWait3
;; Read the current port status from port 60h
xor AX, AX
in AL, 60h
;; Is A20 enabled?
bt AX, 1
;; Check the result. If carry is on, A20 is on, but we might warn
;; that we had to use this alternate method
jc .warn
;; Should we retry the operation? If the counter value in ECX
;; has not reached zero, we will retry
loop .startAttempt2
;; OK, we weren't able to set the A20 address line. Do you want
;; to put an error message here?
jmp .fail
.warn:
;; Here you may or may not want to print a warning message about
;; the fact that we had to use the nonstandard alternate enabling
;; method
.success:
sti
popa
xor EAX, EAX
ret
.fail:
sti
popa
mov EAX, -1
ret